The Ending Of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen Explained

Let us first take a moment to bask in life's small blessings: By the grace of some unknowable force of goodness, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen managed to avoid being titled "Tran2formers" or "Transformer2." Maybe it spent its dumb-name-avoidance capital early and had to make up for it with Dark of the Moon, but the point is, things could have been worse.

Our story begins in the distant past, with the seven original Primes scootin' across the universe and turning harvested stars into nutritious Energon, the favorite snack of robots in disguise. One of the Primes goes off script and decides to harvest Earth's sun, pigeonholing himself into a bummer of an eternal reputation and landing the nickname "the Fallen." The other Primes imprison the Fallen, hiding the secret of his prison in their own sacrificed bodies. Now seems like a good point to bring up the fact that the script for this was written in eight weeks due to fears of an oncoming writers strike, so there are going to be some plot holes that we all just have to accept.

Here's the ending of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen explained.

In the present, two years after the events of Transformers, we find Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) ready to move on to new adventures. The time has come for him to put aside childish things like a shape-shifting robot car and a loving, dedicated girlfriend named Mikaela (Megan Fox) and focus on what's really important: a college education. Unfortunately, his academic future is put in jeopardy when he accidentally brushes up against a shard of the AllSpark, the semi-mystical Cybertronian technology with the power to turn your Zune into a rocket-propelled slaughter-Roomba. Sam winds up with a head full of equations and glyphs that he needs to get out of his head. He also meets a girl who is secretly an evil tongue robot (pictured above), which happens to a lot of guys in college.

Meanwhile, on the more Transformersy side of the plot, Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and company have teamed up with the government to hunt down any Decepticons that are still chilling on Earth. Unfortunately, their quarry is more than meets the eye, and the forces of malevolence manage to resurrect Megatron (Hugo Weaving), who it turns out has been answering to the Fallen. Megatron is tasked with killing Optimus Prime, which is rad for Megatron because he was probably planning on doing that anyway. Primes, we learn, are the only Transformers with the ability to kill the Fallen. Also on the agenda: capturing Sam.

Megatron and Friends go after Sam, and Optimus Prime gets murdered real good in the ensuing battle. Sam escapes, and he and Mikaela follow a trail of breadcrumbs to a long-hidden Transformer shaped like a jet. The jet guy reveals that the same technology which might free the Fallen and help him gobble up the sun could also be used to bring Optimus back to life. Off they all go to Egypt, where another really big fight happens and Sam gets straight-up killed.

Luckily for dead Sam, he meets those Primes from the distant past on the other side and they return him to life, armed with the MacGuffin necessary to reanimate Optimus Prime. The jet guy from earlier shuffles off his mortal coil so that Optimus can wear his old body parts, which he uses to kill the Fallen and send Megatron packing. Megatron swears vengeance, Optimus shimmies out of his auxiliary body parts, and the world is safe for another day.

Where does all of this leave us? Megatron is still out there, conniving and cranky. Optimus and the other Autobots stand at the ready to wage their battle and destroy the Decepticons, should the opportunity arise. Sam returns to college. Mikaela finds something else to do with her life after Megan Fox gets in hot water for comparing the series' director to Hitler. Most importantly of all, the film grosses $836 million at the box office, basically guaranteeing that the Transformers franchise will continue on for years and years, regardless of cast, story, or critical reception.